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BY DC CUEVA
It's a few days before it officially begins with its December solstice on Saturday, but winter has arrived in the world of MTV Reality. The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 is now history, and now three shows take over the focus of MTV fans everywhere to delight us during the coldest time of year, two of which each have their third seasons take place within driving distance of each other in Central Florida: Floribama Shore in St. Pete Beach, and Siesta Key in nearby Sarasota as Bachelor Nation's Robby Hayes comes to town. And for a touch of winter, Ex On The Beach is taking its hot mess to the slopes and the Peak of Love - the first true global season of this MTV guilty pleasure, as those from America, Britain and Canada take up residency in a New Zealand chalet by the snow.
Historically, any Ex On The Beach season often casts those ordinary people chosen in the usual fashion of a casting call like what we've seen those who started on Real World, AYTO or any other MTV show before going onto a Challenge later on. But inspired by the celeb-reality shows of years past, Ex USA began a trend of reality stars from in and outside the MTV landscape being featured on the beach, which has inspired celebrity versions for the next seasons of the British and Brazilian versions of this series this coming winter overseas - adding to the occasional reality vet in previous UK series such as Geordie Shore (their own Jersey Shore). And for this season's class of singles, the cast once again features something for everyone in the reality world - Robby's old show, RuPaul's Drag Race and beyond - who've joined those familiar to MTV fans in Nicole of The Challenge, Marlon of The Real World, Tyranny of AYTO, and a few others from in and outside this community for this winter's escape.
So once again, we at DCBLOG are here to answer that question, "Who Are These Newbies?" ... this time it's for Ex On The Beach: Peak of Love. And after the jump, we'll be meeting them - starting with the one single with the biggest social media following and continuing the progressive trend of the LGBT community being represented on reality dating television.
♥ ADORE DELANO/DANNY NORIEGA - RuPaul's Drag Race and American Idol 🏳️🌈
Daniel Noriega grew up east of Los Angeles in Azusa, CA and while he was in elementary school he came out at 12 years old, the same time that he began to write music as a solace to where he grew up in a largely Hispanic community. As someone who loved to sing and dance and who had a fandom for Britney and Chris Brown, Danny represents one of the dozens of success stories of those who have achieved greater fame because of their exposure on American Idol, and he auditioned twice: in 2007, the then 18-year-old went on Season 6 (Jordin Sparks' season), where he sang in front of the iconic trio of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul & Simon Cowell, and made it to Round 2 in Hollywood but got cut. But he earned a second chance the following year on Season 7, where as the last person to audition in front of the originals down in San Diego, Danny performed Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" and his flamboyant & lively persona struck a chord with them.
Him getting another chance to impress Randy, Paula & Simon was more than good enough for Danny to advance again to Tinseltown, but not before his clapback at Simon became viral and landed him on E!'s The Soup. This time, he cleared the second hurdle to the shortlist of fifty singers who made to the last day of Hollywood Week, and the judges gave him a ticket to Phase 3 and performing under the bright lights of the small stage before the live shows. He performed Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock," among others, to survive the following two weeks of the semifinal section of each Idol season, before making it to the Top 16 - and a weak performance of an 80's song proved to be the difference in him placing in Week 3's bottom two, missing a spot of joining winner David Cook, runner-up David Archleta and the rest of that year's Top 12. But as a consolation prize, he appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show and performed on Rosie O'Donnell's cruise ship.
For someone who lived his life as a girl for a time in school, who identifies today as non-binary and who first performed in drag at a 2011 contest, ultimately the chance came for Adore to audition for RuPaul's Drag Race. But as it was with Idol, it was only on the second try did she finally break through: in 2014 - three years after she made her choice to perform in drag permanent, Adore made it onto Season 6 of Drag Race. As he wrote on Yahoo in 2016, "...it was a liberating experience. When they put the camera on me, I could say whatever the f___ I wanted. They let me be silly and fun and tell my story. The experience was way more positive, uplifting, and encouraging than Idol had been."
In coining a new signature phrase "TMTH" - an acronym for "too much to handle," Adore had a slow start to her stint on RPDR where the judges called her a sloppy queen, but ultimately got it together over the course of the season. Her winning two straight challenges helped Adore make it to the season's final two, eventually finishing runner-up to friend Bianca Del Rio, and then released new music afterwards with a Top 5 dance/electronic album which also reached the top 60 on Billboard. She then returned for Drag Race's second All-Stars season in 2016, but after getting criticism from judges, Adore became the first contestant on either the regular or spinoff show to quit... which was then followed by legal issues in taking her former management firm to court over unpaid fees.
As a prelude to her coming onto Ex On The Beach, Adore joined MTV alum Karamo Brown of Queer Eye and one who auditioned on Idol himself years back, Todrick Hall, and a slew of other guest stars who made guest cameos on the music video of Taylor Swift's LGBT anthem, "You Need to Calm Down." She had doubts over whether to make the jump to MTV, but in addition to having watched the show regularly (both US & UK) Adore hopes to continue the AYTO 8 cast's inspirational message to both kids and the LGBT community to be themselves, regardless of gender or sexuality.
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♥ DANIEL MAGUIRE - The Bachelorette & Bachelor in Paradise 🇨🇦
Another Challenger from earlier this year, Chase McNary, was on the first EOTB season two years after JoJo Fletcher rejected him on the last getaway date of her Bachelorette season... so did "Bad" Chad Johnson on Ex 2 the season after and the fireworks he brought to his time going for roses. Their Bachelorette season also included Siesta Key's biggest newcomer Robby Hayes (by way of his fling with queen Juliette Porter), the one who won JoJo's heart Jordan Rodgers (for whom he & her host Paramount Network's Battle of the Fittest Couples), and the third Bachelorette to get chosen for Ex On The Beach.. and who like his predecessors also went for love on Bachelor in Paradise.
From the same region where Laurel, Cara Maria and the Fresh Meat 2 class got their initiation, Daniel Maguire grew up north of Vancouver in Lions Bay, British Columbia to eventually become a model, personal trainer and bodybuilder with a psychology degree. In his original bio, he named "honesty, experienced and friendly" as his best attributes and doesn't see himself as a romantic, though he make up for it in having "good manners and do little things which a girl would love," which includes being a good cook. Daniel is also humbled by two life-changing events: ten years ago, his dad was paralyzed in a mountain bike crash, followed four years later by his son getting into a near fatal motorcycle dust-up of his own. That experience told him to do what he can to live life to its fullest, including enjoying everything B.C. has to offer, and having spent three years living & traveling overseas including trips to Africa, South America and Asia - and who on the move again out of country as this EOTB season begins airing back home in North America.
In deciding to jump at the chance to experience something new, fun and to fall in love, Daniel made quite an impression on Bachelor Nation almost from when he moved into the Villa De La Vina that summer of 2016. It all started when he entered the house in a dark outfit, then proceeded to strip it all off and jump into the pool, making for an awkward but most entertaining start to his Bachelorette campaign. Of course, who can forget the bromance Daniel had with Chad in him being Bad Chad's only ally in the Villa... but that all dissipated when a mention of a ruthless dictator in front of the resident pot stirrer hastened their demise as fast as any Bachelor romance (or to put it in MTV words, what happened to Gus & Jeremiah last week on Floribama Shore). And when JoJo sent Daniel on his way out in Week 4, he did not leave quietly - both visually and verbally.
Along with this - and what's gone on with Chad, Bachelor Nation revolted on social media about Daniel for his demeanor in referring to women as "scraps," the manhood he possesses as "Canadian bacon," and uttering transphobic jokes on Caitlyn Jenner. But it was when he brought his talents down under for two seasons of their own Bachelor in Paradise (which airs on MTV's new sister channel, Network 10) that gave Australian fans reason to unite and also go against the Vancouverite. Daniel, fellow 2016 Bachelorette suitor & Bay Area firefighter Grant Kemp, 2015 Bachelorette contestant Jared Haibon of Rhode Island, and Saskatchewan's Thomas Perass of Bachelorette Canada came to Fiji as part of an intruder twist to join Australian natives on the beach. It was Daniel's arrival that garnered most eyebrows, and after he took a girl from Queensland on a creepy date and calling the Aussie women "puppets" that saw huge backlash from Bachie fans down under, who cheered when he was eliminated after one week... the bad boy returned the following year to a similar reaction of disapproval from the Aussies.
Along with those five total seasons of being on Bachelor shows on two continents, Daniel also appeared on WEtv's Million Dollar Matchmaker with renowned matchmaker Patti Stanger and who's become his closest friend from his Bachelor experience, Florida native Vinny Ventiera who also appeared on his original season with JoJo & co. And before his return to Paradise two years ago, Daniel joined Chase, Amanda and other Bachelor alumni for a Bachelor vs. Bachelorette edition of Celebrity Family Feud with Steve Harvey. We wonder what kind of advice his fellow alumni in Bachelor Nation gave the Canadian of handling this unique experience...
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♥ LA DEMI MARTINEZ - Glam Masters and Botched 🏳️⚧️
La Demi Martinez was born as a man, Charles Demetri, and who had a much different kind of career aspiration from that of his family growing up. In his first YouTube video he explained, "Everyone wanted me to be that football player, whatever, and I was always so interested in playing with Barbies and makeup and hair and dressing up and styling my family. I used to play dress-up with my little cousins."
It was with being different in mind - including his sexual preference of living with no label that Demetri went through a time of transition in going from being a man into a woman. Here, they have something in common with one of the most unique stories to come out of The Real World: Katelynn of the Brooklyn season, who also went through this exact process before going to the Big Apple and later onto two Challenge seasons, years before Bruce Jenner's headline-making transition.
La Demi made her TV debut on Lifetime's makeup competition series Glam Masters last year and worked with a pioneer in the LGBT community, host Laverne Cox of Orange is the New Black fame. But it was when she appeared on Botched on E! that viewers got to know more about her journey as a transgendered female. On the show (where in a departure from what's usually the case for those who came onto the show, doctors decided to not perform surgery), she got to help spread the positive word of being themselves while also answering back at her detractors.
As La Demi stated on Botched, "I believe my main goal is to continue inspiring individuals around the world that feel they need to look a certain way to feel a certain way. I want to continue putting out that message of being yourself. As long as I focus on myself, what I need to do and who I want to be, there is nobody else out there like me. Makeup is nothing but a work of art, there's no wrong or right way of doing it."
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The fourth overall season of Temptation Island earlier this year saw the four couples -- Javen Butler & Shari Ligons from the Bay Area, Karl Collins & Nicole Tutewohl of Chicago, John Thurmond & Kady Krambeer of Fort Worth, TX, and Evan Smith & Kaci Campbell from L.A. -- all test those testy waters in Hawaii. As you would suspect for any reality dating show, plenty of drama ensued with the four couples and twenty-six singles, and only Javen & Shari escaped unharmed in still being married. The three other couples who came to T.I. split up after failing their tests of love, and Evan (son of slain 20th Century Fox executive & UCLA basketball player Gavin Smith) eventually got engaged to D.C. area realtor Morgan Lolar.
Another of those who were among the singles who brought temptation to the four couples that came to our fiftieth state is the other non-MTV castmate with (as it was last season with Aubrey returning to where she began on Making the Band) ties to a now newly-expanded ViacomCBS having started her career on its highest-rated cable channel over a decade ago when she was a teenager. Allie DiMeco grew up a '90s baby in Connecticut as a descendant of six different nationalities, but had to adjust to real life early spending much of her childhood being raised by a widowed mom after her dad passed away when she was 3, and being born prematurely. But from age 5, Allie knew that her heart was in arts & entertainment, and it was at that tender age that she began acting & modeling.
As a girl who had a strong appetite for music playing six different instruments of the pop and classical type, Nickelodeon cast her on the channel's musical sitcom The Naked Brothers Band, starring real-life brothers Nat & Alex Wolff. The mocumentary series, which began with a movie-length pilot episode in 2005 and morphed into a TV show that ran for two years, parodied their real lives as sons of show creator & mom Polly Draper, who led a fictional teen pop rock group based in New York City - and Nat & Alex went on to be become an actual pop rock duo later in their careers. Allie portrayed the series' female lead as Nat's girlfriend Rosalina alongside the Wolffs' real-life friends and dad Michael who was musical director on The Arsenio Hall Show.
When she reemerged into the public spotlight more than a decade older, Allie was mindful of T.I.'s concept of not wanting to cause one couple to break up while looking for love herself... but given that the show is different this time she decided to dive in. Her bio read, "She is a fun-loving adventure-seeker who is looking to find someone to share her life with, and hopes one of these men is ready to leave their baggage behind and ride life's rollercoaster with her." There, she went on several dates with some of the men in the villa and who forged relationships with two others who'll ultimately show up as exes in a few more layers of clothing than you'd have in a tropical setting... and she also got to call out someone on Twitter, too.
As she wrote in a guest Playboy column, "At the age of 26, I can resentfully say I hate the way my generation dates. Swiping left and right has never been to my liking, and I used to wish there was a new way to date. However, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up in Hawaii, dating four confused boyfriends with hall passes. ... Despite all the reservations and nerves, when offered the opportunity to hang out with host Mark L. Walberg in a mansion in Hawaii, and a chance to find love, it is all well worth it … especially if one of the girlfriends finds you incredibly funny."
Allie appears at :07
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31-year-old Ryan Gallagher is the third of six children who spent most of his life in Grand Rapids, MI... but since he was in high school and being part of both his school and church choirs, music has been in his DNA. He took those hometown choir lessons to get, as he confessed in an interview, "...an easy A," but his voice teacher found something about him singing and that voice, that he was better than just a choir boy and recommended that Ryan take an audition for a big name artist.
There, he tried out to be a backup vocalist for Josh Groban on his 2005 tour after the success of his signature song "You Raise Me Up," and after being on stage with him performing in the background in front of 11,000 of his hometown fans that changed his life and kickstarted his musical odyssey. Next for him came perform for one of Idol's biggest alumni, Carrie Underwood on the Voices Tour with her and "The Las Vegas Diva," Lani Misalucha, plus another '90s icon Michael Bolton.
Then came national exposure in performing on Carrie's old show, Nashville Star and having his first single, "Gone For Good," picked up by radio stations owned by America's largest radio broadcaster, iHeartMedia. He even went overseas to the Philippines and performing on a TV show called I Love OPM, the Islands' definition for contemporary, Original Pinoy Music. Ryan has also performed shows in L.A., Vegas, Hawaii and other places around the Pacific, including Filipino icon Lea Salonga. And he's even brought his talents to Broadway in playing the lead character of a local production of the timeless classic The Addams Family.
Avid Idol fans know that being versatile in performing a different array of genres is essential for those who want to join Carrie, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson and other alumni who've ascended to stardom. In Ryan's case, his possesses a broad repertoire when he performs live in going from covering pop songs, to where his musical heart lies in classical ballads, jazz standards and country music. He appreciates being authentic when it comes to his music, and he says in his bio, "I was put on this earth to entertain and move hearts back to a simpler place, in a world filled with distraction and distance, what better way to bring people together than through music, REAL music!"
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♥ GEORGIA STEEL - Love Island UK 🇬🇧
Georgia Steel grew up in Thirsk, a small neighborhood in North Yorkshire in the Northwest of England, where she balanced studies of entering the acting world at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London with working as a waitress at the Chelsea location of UK nightclub brand Popworld. She was in a three-year relationship starting at age 15 until going to college in the capital became too much to handle a long-distance affair. Georgia described herself as being a "party animal" who calls her bottom her "best asset" along with her natural lips and eyes, and she's used her Instagram to best show off her outfits of the day both by the pool and before a club night.
When it comes to relationships, Georgia's ideal date night would be of going out for a drink and then heading to the club... and after having a bad date at a seafood restaurant she will want to make sure to check that menu of the kind of food she and him would like. But she's also one who doesn't like guys who are cringy: "Cringy really turns me off. I like someone who's real and treats me like a lady. I also like someone who is manly, protective and fun. It’s good if they have a bit of banter about them." But most importantly, Georgia touts loyalty as her best attribute, something that she had to deal with after her biological dad, British horse racing jockey Rodney Lappin, divorced from her mom when she was age 4, and she told The Sun that her parents' separation had an impact on how she handles both her love life and herself.
It was in drama school that, according to her mom Sharon, that she was begged by the teachers themselves to audition for Love Island in which, "It's a good stepping stone for Georgia, It's the best opportunity." And her daughter was chosen for Series 4 of Love Island UK in summer 2018, but she arrived in the Balearic Islands and the famed villa later than the first set of singles who came to Spain, as the first two newbies during the summer's first week and one of four to have gone to college. And she looked to reverse fortunes after dating someone well known but it's best to keep it all inside: "I went on a date with someone famous – but a girl doesn’t tell her secrets. He was quite into me. But I let that go. All I'll say is they had famous relatives. I'm very out there but when it comes to my private life I’m quite reserved."
Once she moved in on Day 4, a public vote saw one of her two exes this winter, Niall Aslam of Coventry in the West Midlands, go on a date with Georgia and they stayed together in the first re-coupling ceremony until he quit the following week. She then coupled with Londoner and eventual 3rd place finisher Josh Denzel in Week 2 before he got close to a makeup artist & eventual final partner Kazimir Crossley. That helped bring together Georgia with her other EOTB ex, Sam Bird from Norwich in East Anglia, and they went on dates with other islanders (including one week involving that aforementioned Idris) the following two weeks. When Week 7 came along, Georgia and Sam were apart in the villa and were thrown a twist of not being allowed to pick each other in that week's recoupling... but when they did not choose other islanders both Georgia & Sam were dumped two weeks from the end, and it was the start to their magical but later doomed relationship - more on that when he comes to New Zealand.
In addition, Georgia can also relate to AYTO'er turned Challenger Kam in having had experiences of where they realized that they were becoming romantic with those who've broken the law. This past spring, she began dating a man she thought was a wealthy American, but more than a month into that relationship The Sun tabloid reported that the person she dated was a fraudster and former footballer from a team in the English Football League's Championship division, Medi Abalimba, who was convicted five years earlier of posing as an former Chelsea player and who spent oodles of money on all sorts of gear and lavish lifestyle based off of stolen credit cards from private gyms in London... think of the Grunt Guy mess of last year but in British soccer.
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♥ CALLUM IZZARD - Ibiza Weekender 🇬🇧
Back in 2013, a hybrid of Vanderpump Rules and Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club, Ibiza Weekender, began airing, and the ITV2 show documents young Brits working at a hotel resort first in nearby Magaluf for its first few years, and then moved in Ibiza two years later. The show's star is Welshman Jordan Davies, who's appeared on all eight series of Weekender, and who's been on three series of Ex On The Beach U.K. alongside six future Challengers - Ashley C., Bear, Kayleigh, Joss, Melissa and Rogan, plus his ex in the aforementioned Megan, and Vicky & her Geordie Shore mate Scotty T. And he was a houseguest on Celeb Big Brother UK in 2017 alongside Bad Chad of EOTB2.
A person who joined Jordan and the rest of the reps and interns who work for the hotel starting with seventh series last year was Callum Izzard, a 24-year-old from Doncaster in South Yorkshire. As a teenager, he took on stage roles in a local production of Grease, won his town's local version of Got Talent, and possesses a drama BA in college while also doing some modeling gigs and having his own trendy streetwear clothing line. And he joined the hotel group during Series 7 of Weekender as an assistant head rep, and made strong impressions of the management team being named him Rep of the Week a few times during the summer.
Outside work, he earned a reputation as its resident player, where he made out with a few girls in Ibiza including one night where he got to kiss girls blindfolded at the club and brought them home to the villa. He also had a girl he met up with one night get stolen by Jordan, and Cal even had a girl's name tattooed after meeting her... and it made the family of one of his hookups, Chloe Chaloner of Manchester, cringe at their daughter kissing him. But twice Cal has narrowly escaped much harm: while filming he was mugged at knife point while en route back to the hotel, and this past summer was subjected to racial abuse from trolls on the street.
Like Georgia, Bear and others, Callum has also appeared on Celebs Go Dating - in fact, the 5th series and before Georgia's in fall 2018, and he did something a bit unusual: bringing two girls to the final date of his series. But it was a revelation he made during the matchmaking process that raised eyebrows: when CGD's resident dating agent, Nadia Essex, asked him about the number of girls who he's slept with - it was him revealing that he had slept with 250 women(!?) that had him apologize to Dr. Nadia. And it all came after he was caught kissing his TV ex Chloe that put him in the same words as Dre from AYTO1: they came onto their dating shows not exactly being single. Oops...
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Later during the season, we'll have Part 2 of this Ex On The Peak installment of "Who Are These Newbies?" as we turn the attention to the Exes. We'll get to know more about Georgia's Islander exes Niall and Sam, plus you'll meet two of Allie's exes from her stay in Temptation Island, and someone who appeared on the season that changed it all for The Real World returns - and whose theme of that season predated this very global franchise.
For the benefit of our mobile crowd, we'll be reposting this series in shorter, bite-sized installments as part of this week's blog content this coming pre-Christmas weekend, including Crush Week #2 on Peak of Love coming up tonight, more of the fight that's rocked Floribama Shore and the War of the Worlds 2 Reunion from last night. And we'll also have a look at one of the singles getting a third chance at love on the new installment of Blind Date.
If you like what you see on here, bookmark this site and like, comment & share our posts on the social media platforms of your choice, and include the hashtags #DCBLOG and #SeeForYourself in your posts to @DC408Dxtr across all channels. In addition to episode coverage covering social media's reactions to the must-see moments, stay for original storytelling and quality content you won't get anywhere else. And thanks for reading and enjoy tonight's episodes.
- I AM DC
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